


Beginnings

by LuckyKoneko



Series: Moments shared together [1]
Category: Yu-Gi-Oh!
Genre: Multi, can confirm from personal experience, horses make for great emotional therapy, in other news; im terrible at coming up with titles, posting a thing for the first day of an event on the last day because im sloooooooooooow, the rest will pop up eventually, these tags dont make sense until youve read the story and notes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-14
Updated: 2017-10-14
Packaged: 2019-01-17 11:48:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,003
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12365118
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LuckyKoneko/pseuds/LuckyKoneko
Summary: 1/7 oneshots for ygotplusweek 2017, prompt: Beginnings. I never liked the "love at first sight" trope so instead of the beginning of a romance, here's the beginning of a friendship that will eventually develop into a romantic relationship.





	Beginnings

**Author's Note:**

> Necessary background information; Critias and Timaeus needed to help Hermos with his training because Hermos is a slow learner. Problem is, the three of them didn't really get along at first. Here's the moment they decided they got along well enough to consider each other friends.

“Come on, sweetie. You can do it.” Timaeus gently tugged the rope, urging his mare forward. The horse snorted and flattened her ears, and Timaeus shook his head. “Come on, Opal. It’s not scary. It’s just a flag. It’s not going to hurt you.” Just as he said it, the wind died down and the cloth stopped moving. Opal curiously stepped forward to sniff it, and the knight-in-training smiled. “Good girl. Let’s walk past it now.” He led the horse forward, but a few moments later, the wind picked up again and the flag startled Opal, who pulled herself loose and ran off in the other direction.

“Opal, wait!” Timaeus stumbled, regained his balance and ran after his horse. The courtyard was not busy this late in the afternoon, but the ground was uneven and the mare could fall and sprain or even break her leg.

Someone stepped into the horse’s path, making her stop in confusion, and grabbed her halter before she could run off again. “Easy there, pretty girl. Easy now. That’s good. Easy now. Why were you running like that, were you scared? Poor girl” they talked in a hushing tone to the horse, stroking her neck with one hand while still holding her halter with the other, until she calmed down.

Timaeus stopped and sighed in relief, then quickly walked over to the other man. “Thanks. You saved me a lot of trouble there… I probably shouldn’t ask why you’re here instead of training with Critias.”

Hermos looked a little embarrassed. “Don’t worry about it. Do you need any help?”

“Watch her when she walks. I hope she didn’t hurt herself…” Timaeus took the rope and led Opal back to the other side of the courtyard, as close to the flag as the mare dared to go.

Hermos followed them. “Looks like she’s fine. Is she scared of the flag?”

“Yes. It startled her earlier this week, and now she refuses to go near it.”

“Wait, I’ll get Copper.”

“…What?” Timaeus gave Hermos a confused look.

Hermos grinned. “Just trust me. This’ll work.” He hurried off to find a halter and rope and catch his own horse in the paddock.

Timaeus shrugged and led Opal in a large circle through the courtyard. They had finished two rounds and were starting a third when Hermos returned, leading his appropriately named copper-red gelding. “Copper isn’t scared of the flag, and Opal trusts him, so I bet she’ll go past it if he goes first.”

“Why hadn’t I thought of that.” Timaeus shook his head at his own stupidity. “Lead the way.”

“Alright, here we go. Come on, Copper, it’s not scary.” Hermos led the gelding past the flag. Timaeus followed with Opal. The mare snorted at the flag, but walked past it without jumping away, flattening her ears or rolling her eyes. Timaeus laughed and turned to pet her. “Good girl! See, it’s not scary. Let’s go back now. Do you think you can do it on your own? Here we go.” He turned the horse and led her past the flag again. Opal stayed as far away from it as her rope allowed, but she didn’t run away.

“I think this counts as a win” Timaeus grinned.

“I think so too.” Hermos and Copper caught up with them. “I might as well practice with Copper now that I’m here. Has the fence been fixed already?”

“I think it has.” Timaeus led Opal into her stable, removed the halter and closed the door. Opal stuck her head outside to beg for treats, and he gave her some. “I’ll go look. If it has, we can use the arena outside. That’d be better for Copper, too. Less dusty.”

“Change of schedule, I see?”

Timaeus and Hermos both jumped at Critias’ voice, and Hermos cursed under his breath.

Timaeus answered Critias with a smile. “I think we should forget about the schedule. We’ve been doing this all wrong. I doubt we’re ever going to teach you anything if we force you to do something you don’t want to do. Am I right?”

Hermos nodded. “You’re right.”

“Change of plans, then. Shame it took us so long to figure out.” Critias shrugged. “Well, it can’t be helped. I’ll saddle Crystal, if you want.”

“Oh, thanks.” Timaeus smiled and went to check the fence. Hermos tied Copper to one of the poles near the stables and grabbed a brush.

“Hermos?”

“What is it?” Hermos crouched down to brush some dirt off of Copper’s legs.

Critias sighed. “Never mind.” He quickly walked to Crystal’s stable. “Stupid” he muttered to himself. “I should just have said it. Well, I have the time.” He saddled Crystal in her stable, leaving the halter on and the bridle hanging outside. Timaeus could do that himself. He went to his own horse’s stable instead and took his time to saddle his dark grey gelding, Platin. He was putting it off, he knew he had to say it eventually, but not now.

He ended up putting it off until after riding practice, when the three of them had already left their horses in their stables and were cleaning the tack.

“…I’m sorry.”

“What?” Timaeus asked.

“I’m sorry” Critias repeated. “It’s mostly my fault, really. I was too stubborn.”

“Don’t blame yourself.” Hermos smiled at him. “You’re forgiven.”

Timaeus nodded. “We were being stupid and stubborn, never talking, never listening. Friends shouldn’t do that to each other.”

“Friends?” Hermos and Critias asked at the same time.

Timaeus shrugged. “If you want.”

“Of course” Hermos answered immediately. “You caught me off guard, ‘s all.”

Critias hesitated, and then nodded. “…We can be friends, yes.” “Let’s consider this a new start, then.”

Timaeus smiled at them. “Let’s go on together from now on.”

“…That sounds like we’re in a relationship.” Hermos laughed nervously.

Critias chuckled. “That’s going a little too fast. Let’s stick with friends for now. Who knows, maybe we’ll get there eventually.” Maybe, eventually. For now, they were happy to be just friends.

**Author's Note:**

> I always find horses very therapeuthic to be around, and I'm much less introverted when I'm with horses. Because of this, I figured this would be a good way to actually let them talk to each other without the possibility of the conversation turning into an argument. I think it worked really well. On a side note, the gemstone theme with the horses' names is a bit of a running joke I have between my stories involving the dragon dorks. All animals that are owned by them are named after gemstones. And yes, Timaeus has two horses, Opal and Crystal. Opal is Crystal's foal and is still too young to carry a rider. Fun little tidbit of headcanon there. Anyway, sorry for rambling in the notes, leave kudos or a review if you liked it, and look forward to the rest of my entries for ygotplusweek 2017. EDIT: it's 2018 now and I still haven't finished the rest yet. Blame school and writer's block. They'll be here eventually.


End file.
